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I released Tasks Pro beta 6 to the sponsors… this included the last big feature I’m adding to 1.0: group permissions on tasks.

This is the ability to specify what groups can see a certain task. To use an example from a software company: a product manager works with the engineering, marketing and sales departments. The product manager will have tasks that are specific to each department that they might want to shield from the other departments. The engineering group probably doesn’t care about forecasting and the sales folks certainly shouldn’t be looking at granular engineering tasks. Several of the sponsors have been eagerly awaiting this functionality.

This addition was a lot of new code and a rewrite of some other code that already was working well. I still need to polish the interface a little and I’m interested to see about how some of the new queries will perform when subjected to a really big database. Overall, I think I made the addition of this feature about as painless as possible; it will stay out of your way unless you need it.

A major strength of Tasks throughout the 1.x versions is that it is really a tool for its users. It has one job: manage tasks; and it does it exceptionally well.

As I add more collaboration features, I’m quite wary of anything that impedes the ability to quickly manage your work. There is already way too much project management software packages that are merely tools for management. They just suck time away from the people who are forced to use them without making their jobs any easier.

I’m pleased to say that while using it with the WordPress development team and another group I’m working with, Tasks Pro has performed quite well. The email notifications are very handy and subscribing to an RSS feed of your group’s tasks is a really great way to stay on top of what is going on.

It’s just fit, polish and bug fixing now…

This post is part of the project: Tasks Pro™. View the project timeline for more context on this post.